J Marv

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Everything posted by J Marv

  1. The Avengers film is almost certain to be 3D. Unless Whedon hates money. Which he might. Captain America? I hope not. Especially if its set in the 40s.
  2. The NES. Hell, for cultural impact alone. Did anyone make a feature film starring an Eye Toy and God of War 2? No. But there was a movie about the Power Glove and Super Mario Bros. 3. And the Power Glove sucked. I still think sales numbers are not comparable across hardware generations. If the relative costs of a TV+Console+Games+Accessories are compared from the mid-80s to the early-00s, the NES is the far more expensive proposition. Plus, by 2000, many young adults (well, let's face it, men) had grown up playing video games, giving the PS2 access to demographics (with high amounts of disposable income) that the NES couldn't even dream about.
  3. Err...in what way is the SNES controller not simply evolution of the NES controller? The NES. Saved the industry, birthed tons of great franchises and developers, and led its brand to becoming synonymous with video games.
  4. The PSX. I would argue it had better games, or, at least, more groundbreaking titles than its successor. For all the talk of DVDs in thread, the technology isn't fundamentally different from the CD-ROM, it can just hold more stuff (meaning, longer videos, higher fidelity audio). The use of CDs, and the PSX was the first home video game console to successfully use them Stateside, changed the industry a lot more. Like those high quality pre-rendered video sequences prevalent in JRPGs? Thank compact discs. The relative openness of the format helped ease development costs, too, relative to the competition at Nintendo with its proprietary cartridges. For me, revolution beats evolution.
  5. I'm going to buck my own seeding here (and I had promised myself not to do it). The 2600. It's just more important, and that to me is what makes a console great. Yes, the PS1 (or One, X, whatever) had better games, but by the mid-90's you had industry professionals with a decade plus experience making video games for home consoles and computers. The Atari, though not exactly the first, was on the bleeding edge of the home console market and the home PC market didn't even exist! Allowances have to be made on the games front for that reason alone (its also one of the reasons the NES is so astounding). There would be a PS without the Atari, though I doubt it moves 100 million units. Maybe my logic is unsound, but for some reason it just doesn't feel right for me to vote for the Playstation here.
  6. There would be no Genesis without the NES. Hell, the entire marketing scheme for the Genesis was the fact that it was more powerful than the NES. Sorry Sega, but that doesn't make it better than the NES.
  7. SNES. Mainly on the strength of its games. The fact that it sold better helps too.
  8. PS2. This answer may change in a few years, but not now. The PS2's resume is simply more complete at this point. I hate voting against the 360 simply because its still current, but there you go.
  9. Dreamcast. Easy. Proved consoles could do online gaming, and do it well. It had a ton of quality games come out in a very short lifespan, too. It could even play a number of Playstation games (through some disappointingly spotty emulation). I loved my Dreamcast though, so I'm admitting some bias here. The XBox was interesting in a lot of ways, and its impact is still rippling the waters, with things like XBMC, but it was also an obvious freshman effort, even backed by deep pockets. And forget about the console, the controller was big enough to kill a bear.
  10. I love SNK, but the Neo Geo as a home console was pretty much a failure, it was amazing they continued to support it really. Great arcade machine though, and I love that most Neo-Geo cabinets (at least in my experience) had multiple games. Anyway, the Super Nintendo. Dominant console of its generation (with at least some actual competition who had a shot), some of the best games ever, especially with regards to JRPG titles, and carried on the brand enough to keep it synonymous with video games.
  11. The Saturn does have its highlights: Nights was a lot of fun, and of course Virtua Fighter and Panzer Dragoon are classics. But seriously though, its up against the machine that saved dedicated console gaming. I mean good God, just look at the games DW DIDN'T list: Final Fantasy, Kid Icarus, Metal Gear, Tecmo Bowl, TMNT, Duck Hunt etc. it could go on for hours with great titles. Plus, the accessories. No console had better first party accessories.
  12. The Wii. It's all about impact for me. Think motion control is just a gimmick? Microsoft (with Project Natal, and to a lesser extent, Surface) and Sony (with it's Wii-mote clone) don't. The Wii is getting people who wouldn't have touched a video game console in the past to buy them now and play them, some nearly everyday. It's also going to change the way we play games. Gesture based interaction is going to be huge in the future, in all kinds of markets (see also: iPhone and iPad, Apple). The online thing I get. Totally in Microsoft's favor, but Microsoft does have the distinct advantage of a long history with PC gaming in that regard. Nothing is conceptually original, but their use in a console is, and well executed. I love my 360, but in what way is it "well put together"? Its hardware failure rates are damned near astonishing.
  13. The Playstation. Or, the little box that killed Sega (or at least morphed it into a software company). So many great titles, and something for just about everyone. Also, non-proprietary discs. Hugely important. Not the first in that area, but like the Atari, the first extremely successful.
  14. The PS3 certainly helped win the format war. It was part of the plan. Sony's library was a much larger component of that, but the install base didn't hurt. Especially considering the cost of BD players and the fact that the PS3 was subsidized, making it for a long time one of the cheapest (and most futureproof) you could buy. The PS2. It benefited greatly from good timing, as DW alluded to. The PS2, in its time was where you HAD to be for home console gaming. It didn't have a lot of impact with regards to the way people played their games or even looked at their systems (maybe the DVD player, but it was kind of annoying with that), but it was #1, so it was where the overwhelming majority of great games were. It also brought in the DVD as the dominant format for gaming.
  15. Sales is not really apples to apples across hardware generations, IMHO of course. Things get crazy with demographics and relative cost. $199 dollars in 1977 is a whole lot more than $199 today, and you could get a Wii or a 360 for that today. TVs are also worlds cheaper today. Anyway, the Atari 2600. The N64, while innovative in some ways (like the fact that you could "upgrade" it), was mired in the past in its format. The competition had moved to discs, and with good reason. Don't get me started on the controller. I hate that blasted thing. It had some fun games, but most of the great ones were first party or from Rare. Not a lot of others joined in because of the cost of developing for the cartridge. Any system so dominant that its brand becomes synonymous with the product is damned hard to vote against. You better have a hell of a party piece to overthrow it, and the N64 is lacking.
  16. 1. Nintendo NES 2. Nintendo Super NES 3. Sony Playstation 4. Nintendo Wii 5. Sony PS2 6. Sega Dreamcast 7. Microsoft XBox 360 8. Atari 2600
  17. So you bought a mini-minivan (microvan?) to escape driving an actual minivan? I like the 5 a lot though, and if you were crazy enough, you could do what Car and Driver did and swap in the Speed3 powertrain. Now: 09 Mazda 3i First Car: 95 Mercury Mystique (or for our international readers, a Ford Mondeo) In-Between: 97 Ford Ranger Apparently I'm a Ford guy. Wish car? KTM XBow. All black and raw carbon. I think I'd need a permanent residence near Deals Gap to go along with it though.
  18. I can't say I'm happy with all of the changes...I mean, the Mako wasn't perfect, but it was light years better than this scanning planets nonsense (though it's probably less irritating on the PC than the 360). I never understood the bitching about the architecture either, it made sense that there would be a pre-fab "colony kit" to send to uncharted worlds. The new level design often feels a little to "on-rails" for a western RPG, too. The combat is thankfully much improved, as is the party member AI. Thank God they fixed the inventory. An utterly fantastic game, the downsides are only minor quibbles at best, doubt anything will knock it out of GOTY for me. Also playing with Forza 3 and The Saboteur. The Saboteur is a whole lot of fun, shame about Pandemic. I guess I'm having a love-hate relationship with EA right now.
  19. Probably because Firefly was the reason he got one of these. Remember, going into Firefly, Whedon was coming off of 2 hit shows that were produced by Fox, but aired on the WB and UPN. If Firefly had been a hit, and there was little reason to think it wouldn't given its pedigree, Fox would have made a lot more money (that is, more than it made from Buffy or Angel, since they didn't get revenue from advertising during initial airing of those series). Instead it languished in a terrible timeslot, got zero promotion and aired out of order. It gained such a cult following though, that its DVD sales shot through the roof and convinced Fox to finance a feature film spinoff. That's not really a cheap out for Fox, though I'm pretty sure Serenity made them some money. I'm pretty sure it was a simple contract demand for Whedon to make, given the way Firefly had been handled, and producing a second 13 episode season would be roughly akin to producing a film. Whedon didn't want to fall in love with an idea and have to give it up immediately, and Fox avoids the intense "BUT YOU DIDN'T EVEN GIVE IT A CHANCE!!!" criticism from fans of the show. It would also simplify second season production if one was guaranteed, as actor and crew contracts can be structured accordingly.
  20. The premier was alright. I'm a little confused as to the goals of the circus guy, unless he's taking the Magneto stance. And NightAngle, Peter has the same power he's always had (mimicking the powers of others nearby), though it seems he can only manifest those one at a time. I think Ando still has his power. It would seem weird to joke about it if he didn't.
  21. It's not really a very good book. He wrote it in prison after his first coup failed. But evil though he certainly was, he was also arguably the most important man of the 20th century, and therefore his artistic works are interesting. Why do you think his paintings go for such high prices at auction, even though they're not very good? His story is incredibly fascinating as well, I mean,a homeless Austrian boy who nearly conquered Western Europe? That's incredible. I'm not sure why sales of the manga are news, though. I mean, it did better than expectations, but not worlds better, and not enough to say that everyone in Japan is fascinated with Hitler. And if they are, so what? Most of the West is. The logic that we shouldn't read the book because Hitler was a genocidal maniac is dodgy at best. I guess we should stop reading works by slave holders and pedophiles too.
  22. This isn't exactly a black and white issue. What about legacy games and systems? Games that are "cult classics" and never really sold well, like Beyond Good and Evil? There aren't new copies readily available, but a lot of people would probably like to check out what they missed. Yes, many older games will be "reissued" like the Fallout games, but many won't and there's not exactly a plethora of other options aside from used games or piracy, unfortunately. Also considering the piss poor broadband penetration in the US, digital distribution won't be the norm for years, so services like Steam and XBox Live won't become realistic options for the sole distribution of big budget games (that is, in lieu of hard copy sales at retail). It's not going away anytime soon; but I do think you will start to see publishers and developers incentivize new purchases more, like the Madden DLC: Only the new owners will get the bonus content, while used buyers will have to settle for the regular version of the game. I hope this never results in a "broken" used version, but that might be what it comes to eventually.
  23. Ferris Bueller's Day Off for favorite. The Breakfast Club will probably be considered his best work. I don't know that it's better than all of the others (namely Bueller), but I can't think of any of them I could say is truthfully better than it.
  24. And Emma Caufield! Joss Whedon can cast 'em. For the purposes of the thread: I'm catching up on Weeds and Burn Notice on DVD. I'm into season 3 of Weeds and it just keeps getting better and better. It's not perfect, by any means, but it's really damned good.
  25. I thought it was Ted's at first too, but I think we can safely assume that Sylar has more powers than we've actually seen him acquire. For that matter, so does Peter. Where did he get that ability to trap people in other's bodies? It's not the room that suppresses the powers. It's the drugs or the Haitian. The flame thrower guy in Level 5 was using his power. Sylar has used his power in Level 5 (twice, actually, in Season One when he breaks out, and just recently when Ms. Petrelli gave him that chick). Peter used his abilities in Season 2 to free Adam. I have no idea why Hiro didn't just blink out. Maybe he has to stop time and actually walk there or something. Also, it wasn't clear how long they were there. It's possible the Haitian was simply monitoring them the whole time, which is why he just happened to walk in as soon as they got the grate off of the vent. Also, despite Hiro's training, he is swordless. And straight up, my money would be on the Haitian against Hiro and Ando. The Haitian learned from the best, after all.